The Tim Sherwood Thread

[VillanousOne]

At the moment I don't see any answers other than Tim stumbling on a winning formula, someone in the squad stepping up or just pure luck.

we have known (ish) quantities to return in Traore and Gana

we have several defensive unknown quantities that could yet improve the squad if they play in the form of Crespo and Ilori

we also have Vertout and Ayew who have been disappointing so far in cameos but could and hopefully will play a part in turning the tide

and we have players such as Gabby, Westwood, Bacuna who's criminal averageness is holding us back. Same could be said for Lescott and Gestede but I guess it's too early to judge them.

Tim wanted to sell Kozak to Celtic and I don't see him turning to him or the likes of Joe Cole anytime soon. 

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by VillanousOne

[GeordieVillan]

I actually empathise with Sherwood as his options seem quite limited. We lack a striker (or strikers) to build our team around, so the only thing we can do is hope for goals from midfield. To do this, we have to play at least 3 of Sinclair, Gil, Grealish and Adama - which based on the last 3 games leaves us very light and very easily overrun. Prior to this, with 3 central midfielders, we seemed to lack a spark of creativity and we didn't look like scoring from anywhere. Catch 22.

My view now is that we have to go 3 at the back and hope this reinvigorates the team through wing backs. I would play Amavi and Adama as wing backs (yes, Adama). The reason for this is that we know that Amavi is attacking and pretty good at it from left back, but from right back I just don't think Hutton offers enough going forward, and Bacuna has been terrible so far.

I would then have Gana plus Westwood/Sanchez/Veretout/Gardner in midfield. We cannot persist with Sanchez and Westwood as a pair, they are like schoolgirls playing the Japanese Rugby Team. We then need to play both Grealish and Gil as no.10s supporting one of Gabby / Gestede / Sinclair / Ayew. Slim pickings up front right now.

I know it sounds crazy but its genuinely what I would do, starting on Tuesday.

[Dodgyknees]

What is his win percentage with us now?

[Guest av1]

At the moment kozak is the best striker at the club

 

He's certainly being made to look better by the failure of others, still not sure if that will translate into him being good enough to turn our fortunes around. 

Its especially worrying given that the Manager spent £15m on 2 striker's that can't even make the starting 11.

[thunderball]

There is enough quality in our squad to be comfortably mid table.  We need to settle - late last season Benteke's goals settled us, and Grealish coming in helped too. We just need that spark to kick us off.

For me Tim has to grow a pair and drop Guzan, Gabby and possibly Westwood. Veretout and Ayew aren't going to get up to speed by not playing. Gana and Sachez should boss the midfield, and without Westwood we could afford Grealish/Sinclair, Gil and Adama in a midfield with whoever Grabs the opportunity upfront.

Sherwood will sort them out. His sound bites show he is already feeling the pressure, but surely based on Lambert, he will last until Feb even if we lose every game?!

[Arj Guy]

There is enough quality in our squad to be comfortably mid table. 

Our options up front are Ayew, Gestede and Agbonlahor. Which midtable teams would they get into?

[Isa]

That was - dare I say - pretty Lambert-esque. Just extremely one-dimensional and predictable in the final-third. Which is inexcusable when you have Gil and Grealish on the field. Ideally I want him to have until Christmas before I make any conclusions but results may dictate otherwise - if we were to become cut adrift in the bottom three (a distinct possibility looking at upcoming fixtures) then he'll have to go sooner. 

 

Saying that, a big no to Sam Allardyce. Have we not learnt our lessons when it comes to dinosaur managers? Ffs guys.

[Wainy316]

There is enough quality in our squad to be comfortably mid table. 

Our options up front are Ayew, Gestede and Agbonlahor. Which midtable teams would they get into?

Recall Robinson and play him with Kozak. That is genuinely our strongest strike force.

[VillanousOne]

I know Benteke is a big loss but we've been crying out for players like Gil, Grealish and Traore for years, it seems ridculous that now that we have creative talent in midfield this will be the season we go down

 

 

 

 

[Dodgyknees]

I know Benteke is a big loss but we've been crying out for players like Gil, Grealish and Traore for years, it seems ridculous that now that we have creative talent in midfield this will be the season we go down

 

 

 

 

that's the problem when you have a chairman who spends 7m net, you have to sell your best player to buy the rest of the team.

[MikeMcKenna]

I know Benteke is a big loss but we've been crying out for players like Gil, Grealish and Traore for years, it seems ridculous that now that we have creative talent in midfield this will be the season we go down

 

 

 

 

that's the problem when you have a chairman who spends 7m net, you have to sell your best player to buy the rest of the team.

I am no fan of Lerner but he is not responsible for our shit results so far - Sherwood is. There is no way we could have kept Benteke. Sherwood  put all his hopes on signing Adebayor and his plan B was Gestede. However frankly scoring goals wasn't the problem against Leicester and the attack wasn't the problem against WBA. Sherwoods tactics lost us both games. He bought a truck load of midfielders. Against Leicester Sherwood should have closed up midfield when we were two up but didn't. WBA dominated the midfield from the start and Sherwood underestimated how organised they would be. 

We have no choice but to back Sherwood but all my reservations about him are coming back and I think the guy may be out of his depth. WBA have a pretty average squad but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

Edited September 20, 2015 by MikeMcKenna

[terrytini]

I know I may be one of the few still defending him right now, but everybody needs to relax. It is still early, I know the points aren't there but apart from today the performances in general have been good and are certainly improving. If we are still in this position at Christmas, I'll start to worry. But the season has barely begun and there is plenty of time to put points on the board. Teams get out of it with a few weeks to go, we have over 30 games to climb. I know it's not been great but the signs of a good team are there, give it time and you'll see.

This for me.

Way way too early to write him, or the players, off, in my opinion.

I am an appalling optimist, I accept that, but I genuinely do not feel we hhave played significantly worse than most other sides I've watched so far (and I've watched pretty much every Premier game). In fact I think our football has been better than a number of Clubs, and I don't think it would have been an unjust return to have had 4 more points than we have. We will see in time.

IHowever even if my suspicion was that we could fail, there is no way I could call for the Managers head in September/ October.

I argued it was counter productive in respect of Lambert, and I would say even more so now.

 

Long, !ong way to go.

 

Wonder if Bilic, Ranieri, etc will all look so wonderful 20 games in. I strongly suspect their points tally will be pretty similar to ours.

[terrytini]

I don't think he thinks he is a tactical genius.

I think he thinks attacking football will, over a season, bring us a much better points tally than tight football. And I do.

It isn't working yet, but I would hate to see him revert to a Pulis type way of playing football, and I think we would do worse, over the season, if he did.

[Marka Ragnos]

but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive me if I don't freak out.

Edited September 20, 2015 by Plastic Man

[MikeMcKenna]

but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive if I don't freak out.

Edited September 20, 2015 by MikeMcKenna

[MikeMcKenna]

but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive if I don't freak out.

They were better to the first and second ball all game. They dominated midfield despite all our flair players they made us look poor. Pulis tactically was much better than Sherwood as was Ranieri in the second half v Leicester. As it stands I think Sherwood is tactically inept.

Edited September 20, 2015 by MikeMcKenna

[Marka Ragnos]

but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive if I don't freak out.

Pulis tactically was much better than Sherwood as was Ranieri in the second half v Leicester. As it stands I think Sherwood is tactically inept.

It's almost as if Sherwood is far, far less experienced managing in top-flight football than those two.

[MikeMcKenna]

but as much as I dislike Pulis's brand of football he taught Sherwood a lesson today. After Leicester I had hoped to see that he was quick learner but I fear his arrogance and belief that he is a tactical genius will be our undoing.

 

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive if I don't freak out.

Pulis tactically was much better than Sherwood as was Ranieri in the second half v Leicester. As it stands I think Sherwood is tactically inept.

It's almost as if Sherwood is far, far less experienced managing in top-flight football than those two.

Is that a justification? Either he a good manager or not. 

[lexicon]

It's not as simple as that Mike - experience plays a massive part in the development of a manager but I don't think that's Sherwood's problem.

Sherwood's problem is that he doesn't seem to take the other side into consideration - it's like he looks at our XI and decides to play who he thinks is best, full stop, and then just leaves them to it on the pitch and hangs them out to dry if they don't do well. He could get away with that at Spurs because they had a lot of good players but that's just not possible with us - our players aren't good enough to win games by themselves. 

I honestly feel the same as I did when we had McLeish, in that I can't see any positive signs in the manager and it's made worse by the fact that we've got some decent players in the side now.

[tylerreznik]

The biggest concern for me is we have no direction whatsoever, as others have said Sherwood seems to think that by playing attacking football you'll win more matches than you lose and we'll be right.  Sorry but no, look at Arsenal & Chelsea to see how utterly wrong that mindset is, then look at the quality of players we have....

Sherwood should be an U21 coach where he sell that attack at all costs philosophy and develop players without any real risks.  As a manager / head coach, I'm sorry but he has been utterly found out, everything he has said and done over the past three week leads me believe he has absolutely no idea how to turn this around, and judging by yesterdays performance seems the players are starting the believe that too.

Against Sunderland, one of the worse teams to have graced the PL in recent memory, he showed either extreme naivety or arrogance in failing to adapt after they made major half time changes and came out looking like a different side in the 2nd half.  Yeah we should have won easily and been 4 up in the 1st half, but simple fact they made changes that we didn't or couldn't counter, meant we ended up drawing because of his arrogance or stupidity.

Leicester game for me was when he really showed us what he has to offer the club as a manager.  Taking off Gill to bring on Ayew when trying to protect a 2-0 lead, WTF, I'd really love to hear his rational behind that move i really would.  And leaving Sanchez on when he clearly looked gassed, bring on Hutton for 5 mins, I mean you honestly couldn't make this stuff up.  2-0 up away from home, time to pull up stumps, flood the middle, all you have to do close down spaces and keep the ball, blind freddy can see you need fresh legs in the MIDDLE.  If he thinks the sub he made were going to help us achieve that, then deadset he needs to be locked up in an asylum......  Then he blaming the players for giving the ball away and making stupid mistakes.  Again you could't make it, and I hope he felt sick because that loss was down to him.

It seems he thinks all he has to do is pick his 11, give um a good gee up talk before kick off, and let them get on with on it for 90 mins.

His tactical naivety is simply frightening and has cost us 5 points in the last 3 games, that's a fact, I honestly believe with any other manager in league in charge of the same players we would have beaten Sunderland + Leicester.  

We won't stay up with Sherwood in charge, he just isn't ready and / or capable enough to be managing at this level, that's blindingly obvious.

Our squad still has some weaknesses for sure, but overall with the players we have, we should be around mid table / lower mid table.  For mine the blame lies squarely with Sherwood and everything I've seen so far leads to me to believe only blind luck will see us picking up results from here on in.  As the season progresses he just get found out more frequently and smarter managers will run rings around him tactically.